10 Dollars and Half a Box of Fruit Roll-Ups
by RiteOnTime
Summary: SPOILERS FOR BLOOD OF OLYMPUS. Leo and Calypso are travelling the world and taking time for just themselves, but that doesn't mean that Leo doesn't miss his friends.


**A/N: SPOILERS FOR ****_BLOOD OF OLYMPUS. _****While travelling with Calypso, Leo finally decides to let at least Piper know he's not dead. (Based off the scene in BoO where Piper asks for $20 and a box of fruit roll-ups if the statue of Hygieia was guarding Asclepius.)**

* * *

They had been travelling for a couple of weeks, and truth be told, Leo didn't really know where they were right now. All he knew was that it was warm and beautiful and not even remotely close to a beach. After spending millennia on Ogygia, Calypso told him that while on their "Super Awesome World Tour Palooza," she didn't want to be near a beach for any longer than it took to pass it.

Once they left the island, Festus had taken them to the closest place that Leo could get some new clothes and extra camping gear. Although that "place" was really just some weird hippy grocery store where the cashier winked and pulled out everything he needed from the back. And when he remembered that he actually had to _pay_ for stuff, she told him it was "on the house." Demigods did _not_ get paid enough to afford to stay in five-star hotels, or even afford basic necessities, so he decided to just go with it.

He figured they were probably moving south through the Americas, since he remembered passing Mt. Rushmore, and then the Grand Canyon, and then the familiarity of his home state of Texas. They spent some time looking at some pyramids somewhere, but after Greece, it all just looked like rubble to him.

At least Calypso seemed completely enraptured by everything they saw. And living in the rough and tumble didn't seem to bother her all that much; though adjusting to life without invisible servants probably wasn't the easiest thing to do. But they made it work.

It didn't take long for Leo to start missing his friends. He tried to push it to the back of his mind, but after about a week of travelling, Calypso asked what was bothering him. And he told her. Leo told her about what happened starting from when he first left Ogygia. As he talked, he started feeling guilty about the fact that he was alive when his friends probably thought he was dead. He did pretty much die after all.

Leo told his story over a few nights, and when he got to the part about turning into a giant fireball to destroy Gaea, Calypso looked so heartbroken. And proud.

"Leo Valdez," she said as she put a hand to his cheek. "You are so, so brave." And she kissed him and he felt like there was a giant fireball inside of him and he forgot his guilt for a while.

A couple days later though, the guilt began to creep up on him, and he decided it was a little cruel leaving his friends in the dark. Plus, something about fighting the statue of Hygieia kept nagging at him until everything finally clicked. Man was he a genius.

* * *

In the almost three weeks since defeating Gaea, life at Camp Half-Blood was still fractured. Their losses were still so fresh and for Piper, losing Leo was the worst by far. She did her best to focus on the happy memories she had of him, but she hadn't realized how much not having him around would affect her. Of course she still hoped that he was out there somewhere, but it seemed like so much time had passed already. Each day turned her hope into more of a fantasy, and there really wasn't anyone with the time to listen.

Jason had adopted his cause of representing all the gods with an energetic gusto; he had even enlisted Annabeth's help with creating a list of every god and goddess, as well as some preliminary drawings of some of their shrines. And now that Olympus was open again, Annabeth was working nonstop to make up for lost time rebuilding. Frank, Hazel, and Reyna had of course gone back to Camp Jupiter, Nico was always hanging out with that Will guy from the Apollo cabin, and Percy was spending as much time with his parents as possible. All of which meant that Piper didn't really have anyone to talk to.

She was walking back to her cabin after checking on some of her siblings who were still recovering from some pretty severe injuries. All she wanted was to lie down until dinner, but when she got to her bunk there was a package waiting for her. It was just a small cardboard box with her name in the middle and the Hermes logo in the corner.

Opening it cautiously (the Stolls were already pranking people again), she found a $10 bill on top of an already opened box of fruit rollups, which she calculated had to be missing about half. At the bottom was a note that would hopefully explain why the hell someone would give her these things.

_Hey Pipes,_

_ I remember you saying you wanted 20 bucks and a box of Fruit Roll-Ups if you were right about the Hygiene statue. But I'm not about to just let Jason off the hook so here's half._

_ Love,_

_ Leo_

Piper read it through about a dozen times, her smile growing wider, before taking off at a run to go find Jason. Leo was _alive_ and even if she didn't know where he was, at least he was somewhere. And maybe he was coming home soon.


End file.
